Prattling about the petty with great pique.

2008.12.08

This could be a very good idea

McDonald’s Corp. is offering a money management program
to its more than 500,000 unit-level employees in the United States,
company officials said Thursday.

McDonald’s partnered with Visa Inc. to offer the
“McDonald’s Practical Money Skills” program, which includes a budgeting
guide to track expenses and access to an instructional video and an
online resource center at www.practicalmoneyskills.com/mcdonalds.
The materials, which are also available in Spanish, are based on Visa’s
financial education program, "Practical Money Skills for Life."

Given the paucity of personal-finance classes in most U.S. public school systems, and given the tremendously diverse nature of much of McDonald's workforce, this could end up being a very good way to educate several different segments of American society. I've been poking around the online resources, and they include a budgeting journal and some helpful loan calculators.

I'll be curious to see how McDonald's promotes the program among its employees -- it's one thing to offer it, but another to make your teenaged workforce think realistically about money.

Depends on whether they can get people to go to the classes. If they happen during work hours (i.e., employees get paid for that time), it might work, but otherwise I doubt it. Especially with the younger employees--does any teenager really think about money management?

Teenagers do care about money management--they like power and control and stuff as much as anyone. The key is teaching goal setting behavior and delayed gratification, and making the goals concrete and managable.